The invention relates to a device for the authentication of a person by his fingerprints prior to an authorization for an operation.
There are known numerous systems of authentication of people based on the comparison of the fingerprints to reference prints or data representative of reference prints memorized for this purpose.
The best known devices are optical devices adapted to sense an image of an entire print, to capture this image to digitize it, and to process the digital data thus obtained for their use and processing by a means adapted to deliver an authorization for an operation. These known optical devices have the drawback of requiring an optical detector surface which is relatively large, greater than or equal to the surface of the fingerprint to be recognized.
There are also known capacitative sensors, such as the sensor sold under the name xe2x80x9cFingertip Sensorxe2x80x9d by the German society SIEMENS AG or the sensor sold under the name xe2x80x9cFingerLocxe2x80x9d (trademark) by the American company HARRIS SEMICONDUCTOR.
Finally, there is known from FR 2.749.955, a system of reading fingerprints comprising means for reading the fingerprint with a sensor having a relative sliding movement to the finger corresponding to the fingerprint to be analyzed.
This captor comprising an active pyroelectric or piezoelectric layer, has one dimension less than that of the finger corresponding to a fingerprint to be analyzed, whilst its other dimension is greater or equal to that of said finger.
Such a sensor is advantageous because of its reduced dimensions, which permit envisaging its use in portable devices of small size, or its integration into existing devices to fulfill in combination functions in addition to those of this existing device.
The invention has for its object a device for authenticating a person by his fingerprints prior to the authorization of an operation, of the type comprising a housing having a track for sliding the finger and a sensor with an active pyroelectric or piezoelectric layer having a dimension less than that of a finger, disposed on said sliding track for the finger, in which said sliding track for the finger has a rounded protruding portion and said sensor is disposed adjacent said rounded protruding portion, so as to regularize and optimize taking the digital print from a finger sliding on said sliding track.
According to other characteristics of the invention:
the device comprises a means for memorizing designs of prints of persons enjoying authorization to perform an operation and a means for comparison of the memorized designs in said memorizing means with a fingerprint taken by the sensor, so as to deliver or not the authorization for an operation;
the device comprises a hardware support for data containing software adapted to execute a memorization of designs of fingerprints, a modelization of digital takings of fingerprints and a comparison of designs of fingerprints so as to deliver or not an authorization for an operation;
the device has a configuration of control means for the position of a pointer or a cursor on a computer screen, for example a mouse, a control ball or a pressure tablet;
the device comprises a memory card reader adapted to receive a design of a fingerprint;
the device is configured as an electronic payment terminal connected to or comprising a computer unit delivering an authorization for an operation;
the electronic payment terminal comprises a keyboard or other means for the introduction of values and/or alphanumeric operations;
the device comprises a memory card reader adapted to receive a design of a fingerprint;
the device comprises, in combination with the sensor with an active pyroelectric or piezoelectric layer, another means, for example a microphone or a camera, permitting measuring a biometric characteristic other than the fingerprints, to carry out a multi-level biometric verification aiming to increase security, so as to deliver or not an authorization for an operation.